Indiana schools chief wants district-level accountability

INDIANAPOLIS - State schools chief Tony Bennett is calling for new authority for his Indiana Department of Education to take over entire failing school districts, rather than just individual schools.

The Republican state superintendent of public instruction, who is up for re-election this fall, made the proposal in front of an invitation-only crowd at the Indiana History Center during his third State of Education speech.

"It has become clear that underperformance is often systemic, with problems rooted in district-level leadership," Bennett said. "To make a greater impact on student performance where it is most desperately needed, Indiana should begin to explore expanding accountability to the district level."

It was one of the few new proposals in a speech that highlighted a number of the measures – new charter schools and vouchers, tighter collective bargaining controls and a new school accountability system – that Bennett has advocated in recent years.

"Today, in Indiana, all schools are schools of choice, and all parents have the freedom to find the best learning environment for their children — whether that's a traditional public school, a public charter school or a voucher-participating private school," Bennett said.

"Looking ahead, our next goal must be to make every school not only a school of choice, but a school worth choosing."

He said he would not be pushing state lawmakers for more money for education, but instead for extra options for school districts to spend the money as they wish.

"What a lot of districts really want is more freedom to use the money they already receive to advance their most effective programs. Indiana should find ways to reward successful districts with more funding flexibility and regulatory freedom," he said.

Bennett alluded to pushing early childhood education programs, but he did not provide any details on how the state should do so.

"Looking ahead, we should examine ways to give our students even more high quality early learning experiences. How do we make sure those children who will benefit most from early opportunities, like preschool, have access to them?" he said, though he did not answer the question he raised.

Offering state-funded pre-kindergarten has been a key focus of the Indiana State Teachers Association, and Evansville Teachers Association President Keith Gambill called it the top step the state could take to boost education.

"When we actually start preparing students at an earlier age, the dividends on those pay out so much more in the long run," he said. "The cost to state taxpayers is greater to incarcerate than it is to invest in early childhood education."

Gambill said the state could also support early education by transitioning from $2,400-per-student grants for those who enroll in full-day kindergarten to payments offered through the state's regular funding formula for all other grades.

Bennett was introduced by outgoing Gov. Mitch Daniels, a fellow Republican who encouraged Bennett to start delivering an annual State of Education address three years ago, after Bennett's 2008 election.

"If we could only have one speech, I'd give up my State of the State because his might be more important," Daniels said.

He ticked off a list of the education changes the two have championed – a list that includes launching a private school voucher system and empowering a new state board to green-light new charter schools.

They also pushed the General Assembly to limit teachers' collective bargaining rights to wages and benefits, enhance legal protections for teachers who discipline unruly students, and end the practice of promoting third graders who are not reading as well as their peers.

Daniels called Bennett "the nation's foremost reformer." The schools chief's Democratic opponent in the Nov. 6 election, Indianapolis teacher Glenda Ritz, said those changes have set Indiana back.

"Your tax dollars are going to private-school vouchers and to for-profit companies running charter schools and take-over schools. Your tax dollars are being given to private companies while our public schools are starved of the funds they need to educate our children," she said.

She complained about the state's reliance on ISTEP+ exams to measure the quality of schools and teachers, and said she would replace it with "common sense assessments" that "will focus education on in-depth learning instead of teaching to a test," though she did not lay out what those assessments would be.

Ritz also said Indiana is "headed in the wrong direction" when it comes to allowing those who did not study education in college become teachers.

"The profession of teaching is continually refining and expanding the ways in which teachers can better reach students with rigorous content," she said.

"This is not the time to take a step back. This is the time to make sure teachers have the proper educational background, internships and student teaching experiences that will make them highly qualified in the classroom."

Gambill, the Evansville union leader, said the restrictions Bennett has successfully pushed on teachers' collective bargaining rights will hurt areas in Southwestern Indiana where teachers' unions have strong relationships with their districts.

"All of that has been achieved through collective bargaining – and that is, all sides coming together and all sides working for what is best for our kids," he said.

"Collaboration will actually become illegal once our contract expires. We're not even allowed to sit down and bargain that. Are we allowed to just sit down and have conversations? Sure. But your ability to have buy-in from all sides, so that everybody has some skin in the game, is lost."

He said he would also like to see a push to attract bright young people – the valedictorians of their classes – into teaching.

"If we're not careful, we're going to be in a situation where we're really starving for teachers," he said, adding that such a shortage could come first in math and science but that enrollment in education schools across Indiana has declined.

Education has also been an issue in Indiana's race for governor between Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, Democratic former Indiana House Speaker John Gregg and Libertarian Rupert Boneham.

Pence has called for allowing veterans' children to qualify for vouchers, as well as measures that would make sure third-grade students are up to snuff in math as well as reading before being promoted to fourth grade.

Gregg proposed a pilot program for state-funded pre-kindergarten. He has said state policymakers should collaborate more as they tackle education issues.